It sounds like a cliche, but when Tucker Wetmore awoke and learned he’d been nominated for CMA new artist of the year, he believed he’d been dreaming.
“I was kind of in shock, if I’m being honest,” he tells ABC Audio. “It was super early in the morning and I just got off the road. My manager called me and she was like, ‘Hey, I know you’re probably sleeping right now, but just wanted to be the first to tell you that you’re a nominee for new artist.’ And I was like ‘Oh my gosh, that’s crazy.'”
“So I went back to bed like right after,” he recalls, “and I woke up, I’m like, ‘Was that a dream? Like, am I dreaming?’ So I called her and she’s like, ‘No, it’s real.'”
Tucker will play his first #1, “Wind Up Missin’ You,” for his debut CMA moment.
“It was the first song that really started paving the path to where I’m going and where I’m at right now,” he explains. “And [it] just seemed fitting [for] my first performance on a big awards show like this [to] be the song that kinda paved that path for me. So it was kinda a no-brainer.”
Both Tucker and fellow nominee Zach Top hail from Washington state, a relative rarity that’s not lost on either of them.
“We’re always poking fun and joking around. Like every time I see him, I’m like, ‘What’s up cuz?'” Tucker says. “But country is country wide and it’s just a testament and a statement that country music has a wider audience than just the South.”
Ella Langley, Shaboozey and Stephen Wilson Jr. round out the new artist category at the 59th CMA Awards. Tune in to see who wins Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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